Trees save lives, reduce respiratory problems: Study

Trees are saving more than 850 lives a year and preventing 670,000 occurences of acute respiratory symptoms, a study released Friday claimed.

And researchers with the U.S. Forest Service value the human health effects of the reduced air pollution at nearly $7 billion every year.

The team found that pollution removal is substantially higher in rural areas than urban areas, but the effects on human health are substantially greater in urban areas than rural areas.

“With more than 80% of Americans living in urban area, this research underscores how truly essential urban forests are to people across the nation,” Michael T. Rains, a spokesman with the Forest Service said.

The study considered four pollutants which the authors say affects our pulmonary, cardiac, vascular, and neurological systems.

“In terms of impacts on human health, trees in urban areas are substantially more important than rural trees due to their proximity to people,” Dave Nowak, one of the study’s authors, said. “We found that in general, the greater the tree cover, the greater the pollution removal, and the greater the removal and population density, the greater the value of human health benefits.”